Is it possible to have an EMP attack in the world?

Question

I think Emp stands for Electro-Magnetic Pulse? Is it possible to happen to the United States? And is it possibly a better weapon then a Nuclear weapon? We went over this today in our Current Events class, saying that North Korea has emp bombs.. and if it happened to the United States we wouldn't have power for weeks, etc..Can someone just clarify to me what the cause/effects of emp are, statistics of it, blah blah blah. It's been bugging me and I'm kind of paranoid now.. Thanks!

Answer 1

Yes it is quite possible.

Five or six strategically placed nuclear warheads at a ground zero of "four hundred miles" can wipe out the whole of the planets current infrastructure and put us all back two hundred and twenty five years. Every single nation.

For instance.

A nuclear warhead detonated four hundred miles above Kansas would wipe out every single electrical, and electronic in north America from the most southern parts of Costa Rica to the most nothern parts of Ellesmere Island Canda.

Cars, trains, planes, jets, trucks, generators, telephones, computers, motorcycles, televisions, light bulbs, taser guns, hospital machinery, stoves, heaters, furnaces, gas line pumps, oil line pumps, refrigerators; everything will be destroyed. Everything from your toaster to the Hoover dam will be toast.

Four or five more placed around the world at that altitude would do the same things to the other habitable continents on earth. It won't be the nuclear explosion that does it but the secondary explosion will do all the damage. The secondary explosion is the EMP. Depending on the location of ground zero will depend on how much EMP damage would be done.

For your own personal sense of security? I would suggest you google "Faraday Boxes". That will give you something to look forward to and you will have to work on them secretly ... because if anyone knows you have what you have if the EMPs strike us; they will kill you to get their hands on them.

Don't worry about it anyways. I don't think it's going to happen but then ... who'd of thought that the WTC, The White House, and the Pentagon would be attacked all on the same day with jet fuel laden kamakazi jets with muslims at the helm????

Answer 2

EMP is limited geographically, the problem arises from the propagation through the grid. You can't generate enough EMP without say a nuclear blast. Stuff like this are successful tactically but have a sever strategic effects. It is not wroth to do it if you are not in a nuclear war.



An EMP won't kill all electronics. During the cold war all Russian migs were immune to EMPs. Usage of old tubes in avionics simpley makes you immune to EMPs. It fries chips but not the filament inside a tube.



The problem is modern communication uses a lot of chips for spread spectrum transmission. You can't just take them away.

Answer 3

a solar flare could do it and will do it to any mars colony!